THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 


THE   COLLECTION  OF 
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UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


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AN  ADDRESS 


DELIVERED  BEFORE 


t  %hmx    %nuhtxm 


UNIVERSITY  OF  NORTH  CAROLINA, 


JUNE   1853. 


BY 

JAMES  H,  DICKSON,  M.  D, 


KALEIGH: 

PRINTED    AT   THE    OFFICE    OF    THE    "  SOUTHERN    WEKKLT    POST." 

1853. 


University,  op  N,  C,  June  8, 185*. 
Mr  Dear  Sir  : 

The  Alumni  return  to  you  their  sincere  thanks  for  the  learned  and 
interesting  address  with  which  you  favored  them.  In  order  that  others  may 
share  in  the  gratification  of  your  audience,  the  Association  unanimously  So- 
licits a  copy  for  publication. 

It  affords  me  no  ordinary  pleasure  thus  to  prefer  this  request  of  th« 
Alumni  Association,  and  I  hope  that  you  will  increase  this  pleasure  by  allow- 
ing me  to  report  that    you  accede  to  the  earnest  wishes  of  your  brethren. 

Most  respectfully, 

CHARLES  PHILLIPS, 
Secretary  of  the  Alumni  Association. 
To  James  H.  Dickson,  M.  D. 


Wilhington,  N.  C.,  June  6, 1853. 
My  Dear  Sir: 

Your  letter  of  the  3d  instant,  conveying  to  me  the  request  of  the  Alum- 
ni Association,  for  a  copy  of  the  address  delivered  by  me  at  their  late  annual 
meeting,  for  publication,  has  been  received. 

In  complying  with  the  wish  of  the  Association,  I  do  so  with  some  de- 
gree of  reluctance,  arising  from  an  apprehension,  that  the  favorable  receptio» 
which  it  appears  to  have  met  with  on  its  delivery,  may  fail  to  be  sustained  by 
a  deliberate  or  critical  examination. 

Very  respectfully, 

JAS.  H.  DICKS05. 
For  Mr.  Charles  Phillips,  Sec'y  Al.  As. 


-J 

M 


ADDRESS. 


Gentlemen  Alumni  of  the  University  : 

In  enforcing  the  obligation  of  duty  on  the  part  of 
every  individual  to  the  generation  in  which  he  lives, 
that  earnest  writer,  profound  thinker  and  eminent  critic, 
Thomas  Carlyle,  makes  the  philosophical  hero  of  his 
Sartor  Resartus,  somewhat  testily  exclaim,  "  were  it 
the  pitifullest  infinitessimal  fraction  of  a  product,  produce 
it." 

Sustained  by  such  high  authority  in  the  opinion,  that 
the  small  value  of  the  offering  which  one  may  have  to 
make  furnishes  no  valid  reason  for  withholding  it,  I 
have  consented  to  appear  before  you  on  the  present  oc- 
casion, although  I  am  well  aware  of  my  inability  to 
bring  with  me  any  rich  tribute  of  literary  excellence, 
or  any  rare  production  of  able  scholarship,  such  as 
would  befit  the  occasion  ;  but  solely  to  attest  my  sense 
of  obligation  to,  and  the  deep  interest  I  feel  in,  the 
great  cause  of  human  learning. 

I  greet  you,  gentlemen,  on  the  return  of  another  of 
your  annual  re-unions.  Assuredly  we  must  all  regard 
these  periodical  assemblages  as  pleasant  occasions,  which 
not  only  afford  us  an  opportunity  of  signalizing  our 
strong  and  lasting  attachment  to  our  venerated  Alma 
Mater,  but  which  enable  us  to  form  new  associations, 


and  at  the  same  time  to  cement  more  strongly  and  to 
burnish  more  brightly  the  enduring  links  of  earlier 
friendship. 

A  cycle  of  years,  equal  to  what  is  ordinarily  estimat- 
ed by  statistical  writers  as  a  generation  of  men,  has 
elapsed  since  many  of  us  first  trod,  with  the  elastic  step 
of  youth,  the  pleasant  walks  and  shady  groves  of  this 
our  Academus. 

The  years  which  have  passed  since  the  completion  of 
our  scholastic  term,  have  doubtless  borne  with  them,  to 
each  of  us,  their  common  freightage — the  vicissitudes  of 
life  ;  for  it  is  fair  to  presume  that  we  have  not  all  been 
bound  to  the  world  by 

"  A  chain  woven  of  flowers  and  dipped  in  sweetness." 

The  bright  halo  which  encircled  objects  when  seen  in 
the  distant  perspective,  we  have  probably  found  owed 
much  of  its  beauty  to  having  been  viewed  through  the 
rosy  portals  of  the  dawn,  and  that  as  the  day  advanced, 
it  waned  into  dimmer  lustre,  or  faded  entirely  away. 

The  ever-changing  events  of  life  have  no  doubt  plac- 
ed us  all,  and  perhaps  frequently,  in  positions  calculat- 
ed to  make  the  hardest  sensitive,  and  the  boldest  cau- 
tious ;  and  the  rough  contact  of  the  world,  the  sorrows 
and  disappointments  of  life,  which  none  escape,  must 
have  exercised  a  more  or  less  potent  influence  upon  the 
thoughts,  feelings  and  emotions  which  constitute  the 
inner  and  real  life  of  man.  Without  supposing  that  we 
have  been  survilely  passive  to  the  influence  of  surround- 
ing events,  it  is  obvious  that  we  must  have  undergone 
many  mental  metempsychoses  ;  for  the  doctrine  of  the 


transmigration  of  opinions  may  be  regarded  as  ortho- 
dox, and  founded  in  correct  observation.  While  indi- 
vidual character  may  bid  defiance  to  the  power  of  ex- 
ternal circumstances  entirely  to  transmute  it,  a  very 
transient  inward  glance  will  enable  us  to  detect  the 
marks  and  colors — bright  hues  it  may  be,  or  dark 
stains — of  many  things  which  have  touched  or  influ- 
enced us  in  passing  along  the  road  of  life.  We  meet 
again,  some  of  us,  after  the  lapse  of  many  years,  during 
which  we  may  have  undergone  a  process  of  mental  ele- 
vation and  enlargement,  but  we  have  lived  to  little  pur- 
pose if  we  have  not  learned 

"  that  he  most  lives, 
Who  thinks  most;  feels  the  noblest;  acts  the  best." 

Amidst  the  jar  and  bustle  of  life,  it  is  to  be  hoped 
that  we  have  cast  more  than  an  occasional  glance  up- 
ward ;  and  although  the  true  ideal  of  humanity,  the 
perfect  in  intellect  and  perfect  in  virtue,  be  hopelessly 
beyond  our  reach  in  this  present  sphere  of  existence,  I 
trust  that  we  have  fixed  our  steadfast  gaze  on  some  high 
point  in  the  standard  of  attainable  excellence  and  en- 
deavored to  make  such  approximation  thereto  as  it  is 
vouchsafed  to  mortals  to  be  able  to  accomplish. 

Hie  labor,  hoc  opus  est  vitce — to  live  as  denizens  not 
of  earth  but  of  the  universe.  Let  us  cherish  such  high 
aspirations.  Let  our  escutcheons  be  emblazoned  with 
the  motto  "  excelsior" — higher,  still  higher. 

Some  of  you  by  the  pursuit  of  "  noble  ends  by  noble 
means"  have  attained  to  distinction  in  the  walks  of 
public  and  professional  life,   and  you  will  doubtless 


8 

admit,  that  the  success  which  has  attended  your  efforts, 
is  attributable  in  no  small  measure  to  the  intellectual 
training  and  habits  of  application  to  study,  in  part 
formed,  and  certainly  greatly  invigorated  by  your  col- 
legiate course. 

And  here  I  will  take  occasion  to  tender,  a  well  merited 
tribute  of  thankful  remembrance  to  the  honored  guides 
and  instructors  of  our  collegiate  life,  and  doubt  not,  that 
in  doing  so,  I  shall  be  acting  in  unison  with  the  feelings 
of  all  the  members  of  your  association. 

Of  the  professors  who  occupied  chairs  in  this  institu- 
tion thirty  years  ago,  but  one  has  a  place  among  its 
present  faculty — I  allude  to  the  learned  and  accomplish- 
ed gentleman  who  at  that  time  taught  us  how  infinite 
was  evolved  out  of  unity  ;  who  marshaled  us  the  way, 
and  initiated  us  into  the  mysteries  and  powers  of  the 
science  of  Numbers — a  science,  which  lies  at  the  foun- 
dation of  all  other  sciences,  and  interweaves  itself  in  a 
most  marvellous  manner  with  all  the  practical  pursuits 
of  life — which  is  comprehensive  enough  in  its  grasp  to 
enable  us  to  estimate  the  weight  of  an  invisible  atom 
with  Dalton,  and  to  measure  the  cycles  of  the  planets, 
and  weigh  their  ponderous  masses  with  Kepler — a  sci- 
ence which  exhibits  its  indispensable  necessity,  as  well 
in  the  rudest  handicraft  of  the  mechanic,  as  in  the  lofti- 
est creations  of  artistic  beauty  and  sublimity — which 
shows  the  universality  of  its  power  in  the  poetry  of 
Milton  or  the  Music  of  Mendelssohn,  as  well  as  in  the 
utilitarian  inventions  of  Fulton  or  of  Arkwright. 

To  the  professor  who  guided  our  progress  through  its 


algebraic  and  geometric  methods  of  investigation,  let  us 
tender  the  tribute  of  our  thanks.  But  let  us  not  forget, 
to  hold  in  grateful  remembrance  the  absent  professors 
of  that  day — the  instructive  and  attractive  lecturer  on 
that  department  of  physical  science,  which  unlocks  the 
arcana  of  the  material  world,  and  reduces  by  well  de- 
vised analytical  processes,  the  complex  forms  which 
matter  presents  to  their  simpler  elements  ;  and  also  that 
polished  writer  and  ripe  classical  scholar,  who  aided  our 
efforts  to  cultivate  a  taste  for  the  purer  models  of  Greek 
and  Roman  literature. 

The  mutations  of  life  have  placed  them  in  other 
spheres  of  action,  in  which  they  have  gained  a  widely 
extended  reputation,  based  on  the  firm  foundation  of 
useful  activity  in  the  high  vocation  of  instructors.  Let 
us  also  recall  with  grateful  emotions,  the  memory  of 
that  venerated  head  of  the  college,  who  no  longer  occu- 
pies a  place  among  the  living ;  whose  name  is  indissolu- 
bly  linked  with  the  history  of  this  University,  by  the 
devotion  of  his  entire  manhood  to  its  prosperity  and  ad- 
vancement ;  who,  finding  it  in  a  state  of  infancy  and 
comparative  weakness,  watched  over  it  with  parental 
fondness,  and  nurtured  it  into  robustness  and  vigor ; 
who,  when  "  his  eye  rested  for  the  last  time"  on  its  no- 
ble structures,  may  well  have  felt  the  high  satisfaction 
of  contemplating  his  own  monument,  and  as  his  mind 
dwelt  upon  the  great  intellectual  and  moral  results  as- 
sociated with  the  scene,  might  without  arrogance  have 
exclaimed, 

JExegi  monumentum  cere  perennius. 


10 

In  glancing  back  to  the  time  of  our  entrance  upon 
college  life,  the  mind's  eye  ranges  over  a  period  of  stir- 
ring interest  in  the  world's  history — a  period  written  all 
over  in  characters  of  living  light,  with  the  words  ad- 
vancement and  progress,  physical,  moral  and  intellectual. 

Empirical  science  must  always  in  the  nature  of  things 
be  incomplete  and  yet  always  progressive,  as  the  as- 
ymptote progresses  on  its  curve,  and  no  generation  of 
Savans  will  ever  have  to  sigh  like  Alexander  for  anoth- 
er world  to  conquer.  This  single  planet  will  furnish 
"  ample  room  and  verge  enough"  for  the  exercise  of  all 
the  mental  power  conferred  on  the  race  for  all  genera- 
tions. The  rate  of  the  progress  of  science  is,  however, 
by  no  means  uniform,  and  our  own  era  may  be  regard- 
ed as  embracing  the  very  flood-tide  of  advancement.  A 
rapid  glance  at  the  general  progress  of  science  and  of 
letters  during  this  epoch,  will  enable  us  to  estimate  the 
share  which  our  own  country  has  taken  in  the  onward 
movement,  and  her  prospects  for  the  future,  and  may 
furnish  a  not  uninteresting  subject  of  contemplation  on 
the  present  occasion. 

The  whole  domain  of  nature,  from  the  remotest  neb- 
ula on  the  very  outskirts  of  our  visible  universe — from 
the  region  of  the  double  and  triple  stars,  down  to  the 
minutest  cryptogamic  vegetable,  or  the  infusoria  animal- 
cule which  finds  ample  room  to  live  and  disport  in  a 
drop  of  water,  has  been  surveyed  and  re-surveyed  by 
the  argus-eyes  of  science  ;  and  yet  of  no  age  can  it  be 
said,  that  the  wonderful  progress  of  physical  science,  is 
as  characteristic,  as  of  our  own.     Sober  history  records 


11 

nothing  comparable  with  it  at  any  previous  stage  of 
human  progress,  and  the  wildest  fable  falls  short,  even 
in  its  most  extravagant  and  visionary  conjectures,  of  the 
reality. 

The  flight  of  the  arrow,  the  ancient  symbol  of  veloc- 
ity, has  ceased  to  be  sufficiently  expressive  of  the  rapid- 
ity of  its  progress,  and  we  are  driven  to  one  of  its  more 
recent  discoveries  for  an  adequate  emblem  of  its  speed, 
for  without  much  poetical  licence  we  may  designate  it 
by  the  term  telegraphic ;  indeed  it  seems  to  acquire  al- 
most hourly  accelerated  velocity  from  its  own  impetus : 

«  Yires  crescunt  eundoP 

It  is  not  easy  to  speak  on  such  a  topic,  without  the  risk 
of  incurring  the  charge  of  enthusiasm. 

But  he  indeed  must  be  a  disciple  of  the  nil  admira/ri 
school,  who  can  contemplate  the  brilliant  achievements 
of  science  in  our  day  without  deep  and  strong  vener- 
ation. 

Who  is  not  startled  by  the  first  announcement  of  the 
fact,  that  the  age  of  the  planet  on  which  we  dwell,  is 
perhaps  incapable  of  computation  by  our  earthly  arith- 
metic— that  for  unknown  ceons  the  struggling  conflict 
of  its  chaotic  elements  was  going  on,  while  it  was  in 
process  of  preparation  to  become  the  fit  dwelling  place 
of  man,  thus  furnishing  a  luminous  commentary  on  the 
text  which  declares,  that  with  the  Deity,  a  thousand 
years  are  as  one  day  ?  or  by  the  disclosure  of  the  fact, 
that  its  vast  mountain  ranges  have  been  upheaved  from 
its  molten  interior,  by  expansive  forces,  which  still  ex- 


12 

hibit  their  immense  but  greatly  diminished  energies  in 
the  earthquakes  and  volcanic  eruptions  of  our  era  ?  that 
many  of  its  solid  rocks  are  but  the  exuviae  of  fossil 
animaculse  once  instinct  with  life  ?  Who  is  not  astoun- 
ded by  the  announcement  recently  made  by  Ehrenberg 
and  Cross,  of  the  apparent  generation  of  animalcular  life 
by  the  action  of  the  galvanic  current  on  a  solution  of 
silex. 

For  ourselves  we  must  confess  that  these  things  can- 
not be  without  our  special  wonder. 

"  Our  life,"  says  Macauley,  "  is  passed  amid  things  as 
strange  as  any  that  are  described  in  the  Arabian  Tales, 
or  in  the  romances,  on  which  the  Curate  and  the  Barber 
in  Don  Quixote's  village  performed  so  cruel  an  auto-dar 
fe  j  amidst  buildings  more  sumptuous  than  the  palace 
of  Aladdin,  fountains  more  wonderful  than  the  golden 
waters  of  Parizade,  conveyances  more  rapid  than  the 
hippogryph  of  Ruggierro,  arms  more  formidable  than 
the  lance  of  Astolfo,  remedies  more  efficacious  than  the 
balsam  of  Fierabras." 

Thus  has  it  come  to  pass  that  fact  has  outstripped  fan- 
cy, and  the  scientific  wonders  of  Watt  and  Arkwright, 
of  Fulton,  Morse  and  Erricsson  have  transcended  the 
boldest  imaginings  of  romance. 

At  any  previous  era  of  the  world,  such  rapid  progress 
in  the  field  of  physical  science  would  have  been  regard- 
ed as  marvelous. 

It  is  true  that  at  the  commencement  of  this  era  there 
were  many  distinguished  names  among  the  cultivators 
of  physical  science.     Sir  Humphrey  Davy  was  then  in 


13 

the  zenith  of  his  fame  and  had  established  a  reputation 
as  brilliant  as  the  combustion  of  the  diamond  in  his  own 
galvanic  battery,  while  Berzelius,  Brewster,  Herschell, 
Olbus,  Cuvier,  Fourcroy,  Silliman  and  others  well  sus- 
tained the  scientific  reputation  of  their  respective  coun- 
tries. 

Since  then,  however,  the  chemist  having  examined 
every  accessible  mineral,  earth  or  salt — having  appa- 
rently exhausted  the  world  of  inorganic  matter,  has 
created  the  departments  of  vegetable  and  animal  chem- 
istry, and  has  been  astonishing  and  instructing  us  by 
the  beauty  and  utility  of  his  discoveries  ;  while  the  as- 
tronomers of  our  day  have  almost  ceased  to  excite  our 
astonishment  by  the  discovery  of  a  new  planet  or  as- 
teroid. 

The  mediaeval  notion  which  restricted  the  number  of 
the  metals  to  seven,  has  been  long  since  exploded  by 
the  former  science  ;  the  subversion  of  the  same  trancen- 
dental  opinion  with  regard  to  the  number  of  the  planets 
is  a  more  recent  achievement  of  the  latter. 

The  corpuscular  or  Newtonian  theory  of  Light,  which 
we  formerly  thought  established  on  a  firm  foundation, 
and  which  seemed  so  well  adapted  to  explain  all  optical 
phenomena,  has  by  the  progress  of  scientific  investiga- 
tion, been  forced  to  yield  its  place  to  the  theory  of  undu- 
lations of  a  luminiferous  aether ;  and  even  the  great  doc- 
trine of  gravitation  in  which  we  were  educated,  seems 
in  some  danger  of  modification,  at  least  in  name,  from 
the  theory  just  emerging  into  notice,  of  the  unity  and 
correlation  of  all  the  dynamical  forces  of  nature — a  the- 


14 

oiy  which  supposes  that  heat,  motion,  light,  electricity, 
magnetism,  attraction,  are  correlated  and  mutually  con- 
vertible forces — or  modifications  of  the  same  force — that 
however  various  and  diversified  its  manifestations  under 
these  different  designations,  it  is  by  one  agent  in  the 
hands  of  the  Creator,  that  all  the  varied  phenomena  of 
the  universe,  from  the  germination  of  a  seed  to  the 
motion  of  a  planet  in  its  orbit,  or  its  rotation  on  its  axis, 
are  produced. 

Perhaps  in  no  department  of  scientific  research  has 
there  been  more  rapid  progress  than  in  that  of  Dy- 
namical Electricity  and  Electro-Magnetism,  and  we 
are  hourly  witnessing  its  more  than  magical  results,  in 
the  rapid  transmission  of  intelligence  from  one  end  of 
the  country  to  the  other,  and  in  the  more  exact  deter- 
mination of  geographical  longitudes. 

The  subject  of  terrestial  Magnetism,  too,  has  of  late 
commanded  much  of  the  attention  of  the  learned,  and 
observatories  have  been  erected  over  almost  the  entire 
globe,  from  Canada  to  Van  Dieman's  Land,  and  from 
Paris  to  Pekin,  at  which  observations  are  simultaneous- 
ly made  and  recorded.  Among  the  beautiful  results 
arrived  at  from  these  observations,  is  the  determination 
of  the  fact  that  the  magnificent  Aurora  Borealis,  which 
with  its  flashing  and  brilliant  coruscations  so  entrances 
the  beholder,  is  the  termination  of  a  magnetic  storm, 
and  finds  its  analogue  in  the  flash  of  lightning  which 
terminates  an  electrical  storm. 

Descriptive  Botany  and  Geognosy  have  received 
large  accessions  from  many  cultivators,  but  in  an  espe- 


15 

cial  manner  from  the  industry  and  learning  of  Alexan- 
der Von  Humboldt,  who  of  all  men  now  living,  seems 
pre-eminently  entitled  to  the  appellation  of  philosopher, 
and  who,  in  imitation  of  his  Grecian  prototypes,  has 
travelled  over  a  large  portion  of  the  globe  in  pursuit  of 
knowledge ;  scaling  at  one  time,  with  intrepid  step,  the 
loftiest  accessible  summits  of  the  South  American  Cor- 
dilleras, and  at  another,  traversing  with  persevering 
toil,  the  dreary  steeps  of  Northern  Asia.  All  branches 
of  science,  whether  conversant  with  the  celestial  spaces, 
or  the  surface  of  earth,  or  the  depths  of  ocean,  or  the 
regions  of  air,  seem  equally  to  have  occupied  his  study, 
and  no  department  of  letters  appears  to  have  escaped 
his  profound  research.  From  the  rich  storehouse  of  his 
vast  accumulations  of  knowledge,  he  has  been  pouring 
fourth  almost  continuously,  affluent  streams  to  instruct 
and  delight  mankind ;  and  now  in  the  calm  eventide  of 
a  long,  active,  and  laborious  life,  he  is  still  industriously 
occupied  in  his  favorite  pursuits,  still  conferring  honor 
on  his  native  country,  and  enjoying  a  world-wide  repu- 
tation, which  his  friend  and  sovereign  may  well  regard 
with  envy. 

Man  seems  to  be  instinctively  a  star-gazer: 
Nature  prompts  him, 

erectos  tollere  mtltvs, 
Ad  sulera  ; 

and  astronomy,  the  sublimest  physical  subject  of  con- 
templation ever  presented  to  the  human  mind,  and  the 
only  adequate  standard  by  which  to  measure  the  extent 
of  its  marvellous,  yet  finite  capacity,  has  from  the  re- 


16 

motest  antiquity  to  the  present  hour,  commanded  his 
admiring  attention.  Grand  beyond  conception,  in  the 
extent  and  magnitude  of  its  field,  and  fascinating  in  its 
details,  it  must  always  continue  to  be  a  favorite  subject 
of  scientific  enquiry.  The  proudest  intellectual  achieve- 
ments of  our  race  have  been  accomplished  in  this  de- 
partment of  the  field  of  knowledge,  and  the  discovery 
and  promulgation  of  the  great  law  of  the  universe,  must 
be  regarded  as  the  crowning  intellectual  glory  of  earth. 
Peradventure,  in  this  particular,  we  are  without  a  rival 
among  the  planetary  orbs,  with  which  we  are  associated 
and  by  which  we  are  surrounded. 

It  would  be  strange  indeed,  if  in  this  age  of  intellect- 
ual activity  and  eager  scientific  enquiry,  no  great  pro- 
gress had  been  made  in  so  inviting  a  field  of  research. 
In  addition  to  the  discovery  of  the  numerous  small 
planetary  bodies  which  revolve  between  the  orbits  of 
Mars  and  Jupiter,  our  day  has  been  signalized  by  the 
solution  of  a  problem,  which  was  never  even  contem- 
plated as  possible  by  Newton,  Euler  or  La  Place.  I 
allude  to  the  discovery  of  a  planet  and  the  determina- 
tion of  its  place  and  its  elements,  by  the  disturbing  ac- 
tion which  it  exercises  on  another.  This  triumph  of 
scientific  analysis  has  rendered  the  name  of  Leverrier 
immortal,  and  crowned  with  high  distinction  the  astro- 
nomical science  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

In  instrumental  astronomy,  the  progress  of  our  day 
has  been  signally  great.  Those  familiar  with  such  sub- 
jects, are  aware  of  the  fact,  that  Sir  Isaac  Newton, 
having  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that  the  refracting 


17 

telescope  was  incapable  of  much  greater  improvement, 
had  turned  his  attention  to  the  improvement  of  the 
reflecting  instrument,  and  that  following  out  this  idea, 
Herschell's  forty-feet  reflector,  was  finally  constructed. 

Surely,  now,  the  astronomer  had  the  means  of  pursu- 
ing his  investigations  in  the  remotest  regions  of  space. 
According  to  Herschell's  calculations,  he  was  enabled 
to  penetrate  space  to  a  point  so  remote,  that  the  light 
proceeding  from  it  has  occupied  nearly  two  millions  of 
years  in  reaching  our  earth,  and  the  light  from  those 
distant  regions  "  thus  furnishes  us,"  in  the  words  of 
Humboldt,  "  with  the  most  ancient  perceptible  evidence 
of  the  existence  of  matter.  It  is  thus,  that  the  reflective 
mind  of  man  is  led  from  simple  premises  to  rise  to  those 
exalted  heights  of  nature,  where,  in  the  light-illumined 
realms  of  space,  myriads  of  worlds  are  bursting  into  life 
like  the  grass  of  the  night." 

But  even  this  enormous  instrument  was  not  long  des- 
tined to  maintain  its  superiority.  The  still  larger  in- 
strument of  Lord  Kosse  was  erected  but  a  few  years 
ago ;  and,  in  the  meantime,  the  industry  and  skill  of  the 
opticians  had  brought  the  refracting  telescope  to  an 
equal  degree  of  power,  and  it  is  but  a  few  months  since 
we  have  received  the  announcement  of  the  erection  of 
one  of  the  latter  description  of  instruments,  by  Dr. 
Craig,  in  England,  which  far  surpasses  in  power  the 
enormous  reflector  of  Lord  Rosse.  As  advancement  in 
this  department  of  physical  science  depends  in  a  great 
degree  on  the  perfection  of  the  instruments  used  in  its 
investigations,  we  may  reasonably  anticipate  still  great- 

2 


18 

er  discoveries  and  still  more  rapid  progress.  By  their 
aid  "  the  astronomer  has  already  discovered  among  the 
stars,  double,  triple,  and  multiple  systems,  in  which  one 
or  more  stars  revolve  around  another — he  has  been  en- 
abled to  descry  in  the  remotest  nebulae,  groups  of  stars 
and  spiral  forms  of  arrangement,  indicating  forces  of 
which  we  know  nothing,  and  on  a  scale  of  magnitude 
which  the  highest  reason  will  probably  never  grasp." 

By  the  instruments  now  in  our  possession,  enough 
has  already  been  discovered  to  explode  the  seemingly 
beautiful  nebular  hypothesis  of  La  Place  and  Herschell, 
and  to  scatter  to  the  winds  the  infidel  argument,  partly 
founded  upon  it,  by  writers  of  the  school  of  Lamark  and 
O'Kerr,  and  the  author  of  a  recent  work  styled,  "  The 
Vestiges  of  Creation." 

The  inferior  instruments,  failing  to  resolve  many  of 
the  nebulous  masses,  scattered  over  the  immensity  of 
space,  led  those  able,  but  in  this  instance,  somewhat 
speculative  astronomers,  to  suppose  that  this  nebulous 
matter  was  the  material  out  of  which  the  starry  bodies, 
by  a  gradual  condensation  were  finally  evolved,  and 
IJerschell  thought  that  he  had  discovered  stars,  annular 
and  fringed,  which  were  undergoing  this  process.  In- 
fidelity seized  upon  the  idea,  as  furnishing  a  strong  ar- 
gument in  favor  of  the  theory  of  development,  which 
makes  man  to  proceed,  through  a  long  series  of  pro- 
gression, from  an  infusoria  monad,  and  the  universe 
from  self-existent  but  ever  changing  matter.  Thus  does 
pseudo-philosophy  conduct  its  votary  to  those  dreary, 
glacial  heights,  from  which  she  teaches  him  to  look  up 


19 

with  complacency  to  a  vacant  heaven,  and  around  upon 
a  magnificent  cosmical  panorama,  which  stretches  on 
all  sides  to  infinitude,  and  fails  to  discover  for  him  any- 
satisfying  demonstration  of  the  existence  of  its  omnipo- 
tent author  and  upholder — most  lame  and  impotent 
conclusion — barren  and  melancholy  result  of  such  pains- 
taking toil.  For,  lo  !  the  improved  instruments  resolve 
the  nebulse  into  myriads  of  perfect  stars,  and  disperse 
the  very  existence  of  nebulous  matter ;  and  thus  baffled, 
the  infidel  is  driven,  discomfited  and  crest-fallen, "from 
his  presumed  strong  hold  in  this  field  of  controversy. 

This  fanciful  philosophical  hypothesis,  thus  banished 
from  the  celestial  regions,  lingered  a  little  longer  among 
the  dubious  fossilized  fragments  of  an  ante-deluvian  era, 
until  driven  from  this  retreat  by  the  rattling  artillery 
of  the  logic  of  Hugh  Miller,  who  may  be  said  to  have 
given  it  the  coup  de  grace  in  his  late  work  on  the  As- 
terolepsis  of  Stromness.  What  new  discoveries  are  in 
store  for  the  world,  by  means  of  the  great  telescope  re- 
cently erected  at  Wandsworth,  in  England,  time  only 
can  develop.  Its  space-penetrating  power — though 
greater  than  that  of  any  instrument  heretotore  con- 
structed, has  a  wide  field  to  operate  in; 

"  the  vast  whole 
What  fancied  scene  can  bound  ; 
Immeasured  ami  immeasurably  spread, 
From  age  to  age  resplendent  light  may  urge 
In  vain  its  flight  perpetual;  distant  still 
And  ever  distant  from  the  verge  of  things ; 
So  vast  the  space  on  opening  space  that  sv.  ells 
Through  every  part  so  infinite  alike." 

Within  the  limits  of  time  under  review,  a  compara- 


20 

lively  new  department  of  physical  science  has  received 
a  prodigious  impulse.    I  allude  to  the  science  of  Geolo 
gj ;  for  the  meagre  outlines  of  the  Hultonian  and  Wer 
nerian  theories  taught  us  thirty  years  ago,  hardly  fur 
nished  the  frame  work  of  its  present  goodly  structure, 
and  the  researches  of  Cuvier  and  Broquiart  had  but 
laid  the  foundation  of  its  paleontological  department. 
Geology,  as  at  present  investigated,  could  not  indeed 
have  existed  at  any  former  era,  for  the  "  growings  of 
science  are  according  to  law,  and  the  preliminary  scien- 
ces were  not  ready  for  the  success  of  geological  re- 
searches until  the  approach  of  the  current  century." 

"  Of  all  the  sciences  which  relate  to  the  material  uni- 
verse "  says  Sir  David  Brewster,  in  his  biography  of 
Hugh  Miller,  "  there  is  none,  perhaps,  which  appeals  so 
powerfully  to  our  senses,  or  which  comes  into  such  close 
and  immediate  contact  with  our  wants  and  enjoyments, 
as  Geology.  In  our  hourly  walks,  whether  of  business 
or  pleasure,  we  tread  with  heedless  step  upon  the  appa- 
rently uninteresting  objects  which  it  embraces,  but 
could  we  rightly  interrogate  the  rounded  pebble  at  our 
feet,  it  would  read  us  an  exciting  chapter  on  primeval 
times,  and  would  tell  us  of  the  convulsions  by  which  it 
was  wrenched  from  its  parent  rock,  and  of  the  floods  by 
which  it  was  abraded  and  transported  to  its  present 
humble  locality. 

"  In  our  visit  to  the  picturesque  and  sublime  in  na- 
ture, we  are  brought  into  closer  proximity  to  the  more 
interesting  phenomena  of  Geology.  In  the  precipices 
which  protect  our  rock-girt  shores,   which  flank  our 


21 

mountain  glens,  or  which  variegate  our  lowland  valleys, 
and  in  the  shapeless  fragments  at  their  base,  which  the 
lichen  colors,  and  round  which  the  ivey  twines,  we  see 
the  remnants  of  uplifted  and  shattered  beds,  which  once 
reposed  in  peace  at  the  bottom  of  the  ocean.  Nor  does 
the  rounded  boulder,  which  would  have  defied  the  lapi- 
dary's wheel  of  the  giant  age,  give  forth  a  less  oracular 
response,  from  its  grave  of  clay  or  its  lair  of  sand.  Float- 
ed by  ice,  from  some  Alpine  summit,  or  hurried  along 
in  torrents  of  mud  and  floods  of  water,  it  may  have  tra- 
versed a  quarter  of  the  globe,  amid  the  crash  of  falling 
forests  and  the  death-shrieks  of  the  noble  animals  they 
sheltered.  The  mountain  range,  too,  with  its  catacombs 
below,  along  which  the  earthquake  transmits  its  terrific 
sounds,  reminds  us  of  the  mighty  power  by  which  it 
was  upheaved,  while  the  lofty  peak  with  its  cap  of  ice 
or  its  nostrils  of  fire,  places  in  our  view  the  tremendous 
agencies  which  have  been  at  work  beneath  us.  But  it 
is  not  merely  amid  the  powers  of  external  nature,  that 
the  once  hidden  things  of  the  earth  are  presented  to  our 
view.  Our  temples  and  our  palaces  are  formed  from 
the  rocks  of  a  primeval  ager  bearing  the  very  ripple 
marks  of  a  pre-Adamite  ocean ;  grooved  by  the  passage 
of  the  once  moving  boulder,  and  entombing  the  relics 
of  ancient  life  and  the  planets  by  which  it  was  sustain- 
ed. Our  dwellings,  too,  are  ornamented  with  the  va- 
riegated limestones — the  indurated  tombs  of  molluscous 
life — and  our  apartments  heated  with  the  carbon  of  pri- 
meval forests,  and  lighted  with  the  gaseous  element 
which  it  confines.     The  obelisk  of  granite  and  the  co- 


22 

lossal  bronze,  which  transmit  to  future  ages  the  deeds 
of  the  hero  and  the  sage,  are  equally  the  production  of 
the  earth's  prolific  womb,  and  from  the  green  bed  of  the 
ocean,  has  been  raised  the  spotless  marble  to  mould  the 
divine  liniaments  of  beauty,  and  perpetuate  the  expres- 
sion of  intellectual  power.  From  a  remoter,  age  and  a 
still  greater  depth,  the  primary  rocks  have  yielded  a 
rich  tribute  to  the  chaplet  of  rank  and  to  the  process  of 
art." 

Almost  the  entire  globe,  from  the  Arctic  to  the  ant- 
Arctic  pole  ;  from  the  ocean  to  the  Ural  and  Himalaya 
mountains  in  Europe  and  Asia,  and  to  the  Alleghany 
and  Cordillera  ranges  in  America,  has  been  traversed 
and  explored  by  the  eager  searchers  after  geological 
knowledge.  No  mine  has  been  found  deep  enough,  no 
mountain  peak  high  enough  to  dampen  their  ardent  yet 
patient  pursuit.  From  the  bowels  of  the  earth,  in 
which  they  had  been  entombed  for  ages,  have  been 
brought  to  light  the  fossil  remains  of  vegetables  and  an- 
imals of  a  pre-Adamite  age.  Its  gigantic  ferns,  club- 
mosses,  calamites  and  coniferous  plants,  enable  us  to 
form  some  faint  conception  of  the  pristine  vegetation  of 
our  planet.  Its  Saurians  and  Icthyo-Saurians,  huge 
monsters  which 

"  extended  long  and  large, 
Lay  floating  many  a  rood," 

of  its  aquatic  and  amphibious  tribes  ;  its  megatheriums 
and  mastodons,  of  its  land  animals  and  the  enormous 
pterodactyl,  of  the  winged  monsters,  part  bird,  part 
reptile,  which  traversed  its  dreary,  dense  and  vapoury 


23 

atmosphere,  cause  the  present  denizens  of  the  sea,  land 
and  air  to  shrink  into  insignificance.  The  earth  is  full 
of  the  mutilated  remains  of  the  strange  animals  of  a 
former  era,  once  instinct  with  life.  Its  fossil  flora,  too, 
is  rich  in  the  remains  of  an  extinct  race  of  plants. 
These  constitute  the  pictorial  characters  by  which  much 
of  its  mysterious,  unwritten  history  may  be  partially 
deciphered — -the  strange  chronometry  by  which  the 
relative  ages  of  some  of  its  sedimentary  strata  may  be 
determined. 

But  after  all,  geology  furnishes  us  with  no  clue,  by 
which  to  unravel  the  sublime  mysteries  of  creation.  It 
may  enable  us  to  explain  more  satisfactorily,  the  simple 
but  sublime  story  of  the  Genesis,  as  given  to  us  by  Mo- 
ses. It  may  convince  us  by  a  process  of  induction  from 
the  facts  which  it  has  discovered,  that  "  in  the  begin- 
ning the  earth  was  without  form  and  void,"  that  its 
chaotic  elements  underwent  commotions,  compared  with 
which  the  earthquakes  of  our  day  are  as  the  ripple  of 
the  summer  lake  to  the  surging  of  a  tempestuous  ocean  ; 
that  its  dripping  slimy  surface  first  gave  birth  to  the 
humble  monocotyledonous  plants  (the  grass  and  the 
herb  yielding  seed  after  its  kind,)  and  at  a  later  period 
to  that  of  the  higher  order  of  dichotyleclous,  (the  tree 
yielding  fruit  whose  seed  is  in  itself.)  It  may  show  us 
that  throughout  the  entire  geological  series,  there"  is  a 
conformity,  either  symbolical  or  literal,  to  the  written 
record — that  the  lower  orders  of  animals  preceded  the 
higher — that  the  dynasty  of  the  fish  preceded  that  of 
the  reptile,  as  the  reptile  preceded  the  mammiferous 


24 

quadruped,  and  that  man,  the  noblest  work  of  creative 
energy,  was  also  its  last.  It  may  confirm,  it  cannot 
supplant  revelation  ;  and  to  the  irreverent  sciolist  who 
would  attempt  to  hold  up  his  farthing  candle  for  the 
lamp  of  life,  to  substitute  his,  perhaps,  distorted  per- 
ception and  dubious  rendering  of  the  rocky  records  of 
the  book  of  nature,  often  as  obscure  and  enigmatical  as 
the  cuniform  letters  of  ancient  Assyria,  or  those  myste- 
rious characters  graven  on  the  face  of  the  Sinaitic  valley, 
for  the  venerable  magnificence  and  clear  illumination 
of  revelation,  we  may  well  apply  the  sharp  rebuke  of 
Pope — 

"  Go  wondrous  creature,  mount  where  science  guides ; 
Go  measure  earth,  weigh  air  and  state  the  tides, 
Instruct  the  planets  in  what  orbs  to  run, 
Correct  old  time  and  regulate  the  sun ; 
Go  teach  eternal  wisdom  how  to  rule, 
Then  drop  into  thyself  and  be  a  fool." 

But  if  science  has  been  progressing  with  such  giant 
strides,  during  the  period  under  review,  literature  has 
also  been  advancing,  if  not  pari  passu,  certainly  with 
very  stately  steppings. 

The  literature  of  the  present  day  is  not  surpassed,  if 
indeed  it  be  equalled  by  that  of  any  former  period  in 
modern  history,  with  the  exception  of  the  Elizabethan, 
sometimes  styled  the  Augustan  age  of  English  Liter- 
ature. 

By  a  sort  of  poetical  license,  the  Elizabethan  age  is 
made  to  extend  over  a  period  of  sixty  years,  from  Mar- 
lowe to  Milton,  embracing  portions  of  the  reigns  of 
several  sovereigns.    This  was  the  period  immediately 


25 

succeeding  the  great  Reformation,  when  the  peerless 
form  of  the  human  intellect,  having  cast  off  the  shack- 
les of  a  despotism  which  had  long  hound  it  to  the  earth, 
arose  in  its  majestic  beauty  prepared  "like  a  giant  to 
run  his  race." 

The  minds  of  men  at  this  period  were  stimulated  to 
unusual  activity  also,  by  the  bold  adventures  and  great 
maritime  discoveries  which  were  in  progress.  America 
had  been  discovered,  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  had  been 
doubled,  and  the  adventurous  prow  of  Drake  had  cir- 
cumnavigated the  globe. 

Such  were  the  circumstances  in  which  arose  that 
splendid  galaxy  of  literary  greatness,  which  renders 
this  era  unsurpassed,  perhaps  unsurpassable  ;  for  Milton 
still  maintains  an  unapproached,  indeed,  an  unapproach- 
able elevation,  and  Paradise  Lost,  must  still  be  regarded 
as  the  loftiest  achievement  of  the  human  intellect — the 
only  work  which  bom  of  earth,  seems  adapted  to  the 
universe  ;  whilst  the  reputation  of  Shakspeare,  growing 
with  the  centuries,  has  already  become  colossal,  and  is 
destined  to  last  as  long  as  the 

"  Great  globe  and  all  which  it  inherits." 

With  the  exception  of  this  resplendent  era  of  letters, 
our  own  age  will  bear  a  flattering  comparison  with  any, 
and  seems  likely  to  make  a  near  approach  even  to  that, 
great  epoch.  Indeed,  the  rapid  march  of  science  must 
of  itself  communicate  a  corresponding  impulse  to  liter- 
ature ;  although,  there  are  not  wanting  those  who  fear 
that  so  large  a  proportion  of  the  best  intellects  of  f1 


26 

day  are  devoted  to  scientific  pursuits — that  literature 
suffers  in  consequence  of  it,  and  who  seem  willing  to 
adopt  the  opinion  of  Edmund  Burke,  that  it  is  our  ig- 
norance of  natural  things  which  causes  all  our  admira- 
tion, and  chiefly  excites  our  passions — that  the  discove- 
ries of  science,  by  stripping  nature  of  its  mysteries,  by 
making  fact  more  strange  than  fiction,  serve  to  rob  im- 
agination of  the  dim,  mysterious  twilight  region  in 
which  she  loves  to  revel  and  expatiate  ;  and  hence, 
are  adverse  rather  than  auxiliary  to  creative  art. 

But,  happily,  imagination  is  a  heaven-winged  facul- 
ty, and  if  driven  by  the  sunlight  of  science,  from  the 
shadowy  realms,  which  she  has  peopled  with  genii, 
elves  and  fairies — "  from  the  thick  mists  beside  the 
reedy  lake ": — from  the  dark  Dombdaniel  caves  of 
ocean,  she  can  still  soar  on  vigorous  wing  to  the  empy- 
rean, and  find  tjiat  the  feeling  of  the  sublime  has  not 
been  contracted  by  the  numerical  precision  of  the  as- 
tronomers discoveries  ;  or,  if,  on  lighter  pinion,  she 
skims  "  o'er  earth  in  summer  vesture  clad,"  o'er  mount- 
ain, wood  or  flowery  mead,  that  her  perception  of  the 
beautiful  has  not  been  dimmed  by  the  researches  of  the 
botanist  or  geologist.  No  matter  how  much  the  field 
of  knowledge  is  extended,  there  will  always  be  a  limit 
to  it,  which  it  is  her  province  to  overleap  and 

"  Body  forth  the  shape  of  things  unknown, 

And  give  to  airy  nothings 

A  local  habitation  and  a  name." 

Notwithstanding  all  the  light  which  science  has  dif- 
fused or  can  diffuse  upon  mind  and  matter,  man  him- 


27 

self,  and  the  hoary  planet  upon  which  he  lias  his  tem- 
porary habitation,  must  always  continue  to  be,  both  to 

the  stolid  and  the  speculative — the  ignorant  and  the 
learned — the  wonder  of  wonders. 

We  have  insight  enough,  it  is  true,  to  discover  that 
they  are  visible  and  actual  manifestations  of  Omnipo- 
tent power ;  but  in  spite  of  our  sciences  and  cyclopedi- 
as— simply  miraculous. 

In  confirmation  of  the  opinion,  that  the  progress  of 
science  is  auxiliary  to  that  of  letters,  I  adduce,  as  an 
offset  to  that  of  Burke,  the  opinion  of  Schiller,  who, 
speaking  of  art  in  general,  including  the  Art  Poetica, 
says,  as  translated  by  Bulwer  : 

What  in  the  land  Of  knowledge  wide  and  far, 
Keen  science  teaches     r  yon  discovered  are, 
First  in  your  arms,  the  wise  their  wisdom  learn, 
They  dig  the  mine  you  teach  them  to  discern : 
And  when  that  wisdom  ripens  into  flower 
And  crowning  time  of  beauty — to  the  power 
From  whence  it  rose  new  stores  it  must  impart ; 
The  toils  of  science  swell  the  wealth  of  art. 

Our  era  has  been  charactized  by  such  singular  events 
in  the  world's  history, — events  which  have  revolution- 
ised governments,  unsettled  old  opinions  and  upheaved 
society  from  its  foundations,  that  it  would  be  strange 
indeed,  if  its  literature,  which  is  the  embodiment  of  the 
thought  and  feeling  of  the  age,  the  mirror  which  re- 
flects the  ever  changing  phases  of  society,  should  not. 
have  felt  the  influence  of  the  stirring  events  which 
were  passing  around  us. 

The  French  revolution  itself,  the  result,  at  least  in  the 
horrible  atrocities  which  marked  its  progress,  of  the 


atheistic  literature  which  immediately  preceded  and 
accompanied  it,  exercised  a  manifest  and  wide  spread 
influence  upon  the  intellect  and  literature  of  the  age. 
How,  indeed,  could  it  be  otherwise,  with  the  world  all 
in  commotion  around,  the  great  deep  of  opinions  broken 
upland  in  conflict,  the  intellects  and  passions  of  men 
loosed  from  all  restraint,  human  and  divine,  time  hon- 
ored usages  and  deep  seated  principles  subverted;  but 
that  the  intellectual  conflict,  the  struggle  of  mind  with 
mind,  should  partake  of  the  vehemence  and  energy 
which  characterized  the  physical  conflicts  of  the  period. 
The  influence  of  the  infidel  philosophy  and  political 
opinions  of  France  was  soon  felt,  and  still  manifests  it- 
self in  the  literature  of  Germany,  and  to  some  extent, 
also,  in  that  of  England. 

The  sickly  sentimentality  and  impracticable  political 
opinions  of  Ilosseau  tainted  the  lucid  intellect  of  Goethe, 
if  indeed  they  found  not  a  congenial  soil  in  the  mind 
of  the  great  German,  and  shook  for  a  time  the  firm 
faith  and  manly  heart  of  Schiller.  The  influence  of  the 
French  atheistic  school  of  writers  exhibits  itself  promi- 
nently in  the  works  of  Weiland,  Jean  Paul  Richter, 
Hoffman,  Tiek  and  indeed  in  almost  all  the  German 
literature  of  the  day. 

"  The  trail  of  the  serpent  is  over  them  all," 

and  it  is  even  now  working  out  its  legitimate  results  in 
the  wide  spread  infidelity  of  Germany  and  the  socialism 
of  France.  The  sturdy  good  sense  of  England,  to  a 
great  extent,  resisted  the  shock,  and  yet  its  unwhole- 


29 

some  iufluence  is  clearly  exhibited  in  tlie  gilded  ribald- 
ry of  Byron  and  the  metaphysical  pantheism  of  Shelly, 
and  more  recently,  in  that  cohort  of  novel  writers, 
whose  works  have  given  rise  to  a  new  school  of  Ro- 
mance, aptly  designated  by  a  judicious  American  crit- 
ic, as  the  Romance  of  Rascality — much  of  the  subtler 
essence  of  these  speculative,  philosophical  and  political 
opinions,  after  passing  through  the  alembic  of  German 
poetry  and  metaphysics,  has  been  gradually  infiltrating 
the  higher  literature  both  of  England  and  America. 

To  the  mental  activity  aroused  by  the  stirring  events 
of  the  times,  and  to  the  reaction  against  French  philos- 
ophy and  politics,  we  owe,  in  a  great  measure,  that 
brilliant  constellation  of  authors,  both  in  poetry  and 
prose,  which  sheds  so  bright  a  lustre  on  our  era.  The 
clash  and  conflict  of  opinion,  the  good  and  the  evil,  the 
radical  and  conservative  sentiments  of  the  times,  its 
faith  and  its  skepticism,  are  all  reflected  in  its  literature, 
in  poetry  and  prose,  in  history  and  drama,  essay  and 
review,  in  science  and  theology.  iSTor  has  the  influence 
of  these  potent  agencies  been  restricted  to  Europe  in 
its  effects.  Our  own  country  has  felt  the  generous  im- 
pule  of  aroused  activity,  and  has  fairly  started,  we  con- 
fidently believe,  on  the  path  of  a  high  and  glorious  ca- 
reer. Like  the  morning  star,  though  yet  scarcely  risen 
above  the  horizon,  she  is  diffusing  the  mild  effulgence 
of  her  light  among  the  nations;  and  we  trust  we  are 
indulging  in  no  idle  vaticination,  when  we  predict  the 
early  advent  of  a  period  in  which  her  literary,  scientific 
and  artistic  renown  will  rival  her  political  greatness. 


30 

If  the  visible  and  the  material  fail  not  on  this  contin- 
ent to  exercise  their  wonted  influence  on  the  mental, 
time  must  develop  a  literature  commensurate  with  the 
physical  grandeur  and  magnificence  of  our  country. 
Where  on  the  broad  earth  has  the  plastic  hand  of  na- 
ture been  more  busily  at  work,  in  the  production  of 
scenes  of  beauty  and  sublimity?  Have  we  not  river 
and  lake,  prairie  and  forest,  gentle  brook  and  foaming 
cataracts  (  Have  we  not  mountains  of  more  imposing 
magnificence  than  the  Alpine  Jura  or  the  Thracian 
Olympus,  and  valleys  as  beautiful  as  the  song-renown- 
ed Tempe. 

Nature  has  here,  as  in  other  lands,  an  esoteric  as  well 
as  an  exoteric  meaning,  to  the  mind  capable  of  making 
the  exegesis.     We  may  still  find 

"  Sermons  in  stones,  books  in  the  running  brooks, 
And  good  in  every  thing." 

The  solemn  phases  of  the  starry  heavens  are  above 
our  heads,  the  flowrets  of  earth  are  around  our  path — 
the  earth  and  the  fullness  thereof — nature  with  all  her 
varied  scenes  and  manifestations  is  before  us. 

"  The  sun  of  Homer  smiles  upon  us  still." 

We  can  look,  too,  on  man,  and  the  changes  of  his  many 
colored,  many  sided  life,  witli  as  keen  a  perception  as 
has  been  exercised  on  such  topics  in  any  age  or  land, 
and  we  can  discover  no  evidence  of  mental  decrepitude 
in  our  generation. 


31 

If  we  recur  to  what  has  been  already  accomplished 
by  our  countrymen,  in  science,  literature  and  art,  we 
may  indulge  a  feeling  of  complacent  satisfaction,  if  not 
of  national  pride. 

In  the  walks  of  science,  we  find  at  the  present  time 
the  names  of  Henry,  Maury,  Gillis,  Walker,  Pierce, 
Bond,  Mitchell  and  others,  whose  labors  have  confer- 
red high  distinction  on  our  country.  They  constitute  a 
corps  of  mathematical  and  scientific  ability  well  quali- 
fied, to  stand  by  the  side  of  Airy  and  Hind,  Struve  and 
Gasparis.  The  application  of  the  electric  telegraph  to 
the  determination  of  longitude,  is  an  American  inven- 
tion ;  so  also,  is  that  of  the  kindred  apparatus  for  re- 
cording transit  observations  of  the  heavenly  bodies. 

Astronomical  observations  are  now  as  regularly 
made  at  "Washington,  Cambridge  and  Cincinnati,  as  at 
Greenwich,  Paris  or  Pulkowa ;  and  we  hope  soon  to 
have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  the  name  of  our  own  capi- 
tal added  to  the  list. 

The  Pocky  Mountains,  we  are  told,  have  recently 
been  scaled  by1  an  adventerous  searcher  after  knowl- 
edge, by  one  of  its  most  difficult  passes,  and  in  the  midst 
of  hostile  Indians,  and  we  are  informed  by  Dr.  Owen,  in 
his  report  to  the  Commissioners  of  the  Land  Office,  that 
the  territory  of  Nebraska  exhibits  some  of  the  most  re- 
markable results  in  Geology  yet  made  known  to  the 
scientific  world;  and  that  equally  strange  and  wonderful 
facts  have  been  developed  with  respect  to  its  Ethno- 
graphy,   shedding*  light   upon  the   history  of  the   lost 

1  Dr.  J.  Evans,  of  Washington  city. 


32 

races  wlio  roamed  over  its  surface  at  the  same  period  of 
time,  or  anterior  to  the  existence  of  the  Mammoth  or 
Mastodon. 

A  late  arrival  from  the  Pacific  brings  us  the  intelligence 
that  Lieut.  Mcltae,  a  native  of  our  own  State,  who  had 
been  detailed  on  a  Magnetic  and  Geographical  expedi- 
tion by  Lieut.  Gillis,  had  accomplished  the  passage  of 
the  Andes,  undeterred  by  its  storms  and  its  snows,  and 
had  succeeded  in  accomplishing  the  series  of  observa- 
tions necessary  to  solve  the  interesting  problem  he  was 
sent  upon  ;  while  at  this  moment  the  expedition  under 
Lieut.  Kane,  prompted  by  science  and  humanity,  is  on 
the  eve  of  again  braving  the  dangers  and  terrors  of  the 
Arctic  ocean.  "With  such  evidences  multiplying  around 
us,  of  ardor  and  perseverence  in  the  pursuit  of  knowl- 
edge, we  may  rely  with  confident  pride  on  the  steady 
progress  of  American  science,  and  banish  all  craven 
fear  that  our  country  is  destined  to  lag  behind  in  the 
Olympic  race  of  honor. 

In  the  higher  walks  of  art — in  painting  and  sculpture 
— we  need  not  shrink  from  a  comparison  with  the  na- 
tions of  Europe.  But  few  painters  of  the  present  day, 
in  the  high  requirements  of  the  art,  excel  our  poet- 
painter,  Alston.  The  studios  of  American  sculptors  are 
at  present  the  most  attractive  in  Florence  and  Rome. 
American  art  is  yet  destined  to  adorn  our  cities  and 
dwellings  with  its  beautiful  creations,  and  to  exercise  a 
refining  influence  on  our  advancing  civilization.  Nor 
is  our  literature  as  meagre  as  trans-atlantic  disdain  would 
endeavor  to  make  it  appear.     If  it  be  true  that  we  can- 


33 

not  boast  of  a  brilliant  galaxy  of  authors,  such  as  bespan 
the  literary  firmament  of  those  nations  which  have  had 
a  thousand  years  of  civilized  existence,  we  have  many 
bright  particular  stars,  many  single  luminaries,  of  the 
very  first  magnitude  and  of  the  most  brilliant  lustre. 

The  earlier  literature  of  the  country  presents  the  high- 
ly respectable  names  of  Franklin  and  Edwards.  The 
works  of  the  former  have  a  high  literary  as  well  as  sci- 
entific value,  and  those  of  the  latter  are  thought  by 
competent  judges  to  compare  well  with  the  writings  of 
Locke,  which  is  surely  praise  enough  "to  fill  the  ambi- 
tion of  a  common  man." 

The  historical  works  of  Irving  and  Bancroft  may  well 
challenge  a  comparison  with  those  of  Allison  or  Robert- 
son or  Thiers ;  while  those  of  Prescott  have  much  of  the 
combined  excellencies  of  Hallam  and  Macaulay,  and 
have  contributed  largely  to  the  elevation  of  the  charac- 
ter of  American  literature,  both  at  home  and  abroad. 
Nor  must  I  omit  to  mention,  in  terms  of  high  commen- 
dation, the  historical  productions  of  a  gifted  son  of  our 
own  State,  who,  though  no  longer  resident  with  us,  has 
honored  us  with  his  presence  on  this  occasion,  and  who 
i  reflects,  the  lustre  of  his  distinguished  reputation  on  the 
I  land  of  his  birth.    In  an  especial  manner  does  he  de- 
i  serve  the  thanks  of  every  conservative  member  of  soci- 
i  ety,  for  his  admirable  historical  treatise  on  Egyptian 
i  archaeology,  in  which  the  infidel  arguments  of  the  French 
;  and  German  savans,  are  quite  as  effectually  exploded,  as 
i  was  that  founded  by  them  on  their  interpretation  of  the 
i  Zodiacs  of  Dendera  and  Esneh,  by  Champollion.     We 

8 


34 

all  know  how  effectually  the  shout  of  demoniac  tri- 
umph which  heralded  the  discovery  of  those  tablets, 
was  stifled  in  their  throats,  as  soon  as  the  inscriptions 
were  read  aright  by  the  great  decypherer  of  the  hiero- 
gliphical  writings,  and  how  completely  they  were  thus 
driven  from  the  historical  field  of  argument. 

In  the  ars  poetica,  that  divine  art,  which  adds  so  much 
to  the  happiness  and  dignity  of  the  human  species ; 
which  has  always  exercised  a  comprehensive  and  genial 
influence  on  the  civilization  of  the  race,  and  is  never 
absent  from  its  highest  and  palmiest  state  of  develop- 
ment, we  are  not  without  numerous  and  bright  ex- 
amples. 

Amidst  much  metrical  mediocrity,  which,  according 
to  the  Horatian  canon  of  criticism,  is  offensive  to  both 
heaven  and  earth,  we  have  much  genuine  poetry  of  a 
high  order ;  and  it  would  be  no  difficult  task  to  select 
from  among  the  poets  of  America,  many  names  which 
the  world  will  not  willingly  let  die — the  possessors  of 
which  have  well  earned  for  themselves 

"  the  wreath 


Due  to  the  poets'  temples." 

If  we  have  yet  uttered  no  tuneful  *world-voice ;  if  ' 
we  have  reared  no  majestic  fabric  of  genius  which,  as 
we  pause  to  contemplate  it,  presents  unequivocally  the 
aspect  of  eternity,  we  can  console  ourselves  with  the  re- 
flection, that  such  structures  are  but  thinly  scattered 

*  Carlyle. 


35 

along  the  centuries  and  seem  to  be  the  crowning  results 
of  a  long  process  of  previous  preparatory  causes. 

Leaving  out  of  view  entirely,  the  spoken  literature  of 
America;  the  oratory  of  her  statesmen,  jurists  and  di- 
vines (in  which  she  may  fairly  claim  equality  with  that 
of  any  age,  ancient  or  modern)  her  literary  progress  has, 
assuredly,  thus  far  been  highly  respectable. 

In  comparing  the  literary  and  scientific  prospects  of 
our  country  with  those  of  the  nations  of  Europe,  we 
think  we  can  discover  a  difference  in  our  favour,  arising 
from  the  energy  of  our  national  character  and  the  na- 
ture of  our  political  institutions.  The  energy  of  the 
American  character  has  become  proverbial.  No  physi- 
cal obstacle  has  yet  caused  it  to  succumb,  hardly  to 
pause.  Neither  storm-vexed  seas,  nor  snow-topp'd 
mountains,  nor  arid  deserts  arrest  our  progress.  We 
seem  ready  to  cast  ourselves  extra  fiaramantia  moenia 
mundi. 

Now  this  resistless  energy,  which  for  the  present  ex- 
hausts itself  in  physical  effort  and  adventure,  must,  when 
wealth  shall  have  accumulated,  and  education  shall  have 
become  generally  diffused,  expend  a  large  portion  of  its 
force-  in  intellectual  efforts,  and  the  results  cannot  be 
regarded  as  by  any  means  doubtful.  That  political 
freedom  should  be  favourable  to  the  growth  of  letters 
and  the  arts,  seems  not  only  natural,  but  is  in  accord- 
ance with  the  experience  of  the  past. 

We  recur,  in  illustration  of  this  position,  almost  in- 
stinctively to  that  land  of  renown,  which  has  left  the 
deep  imperishable  impress  of  its  intellect  on  all  succeed- 


36 

ing  time,  which  has  anticipated  the  world  in  every  de- 
partment of  intellectual,  and  artistic  excellence ;  whose 
learning  borrowed  by  her  conquerors,  has  interwoven  it- 
self with  that  of  all  succeeding  civilized  nations  ;  whose 
very  language,  as  perfect  in  the  days  of  Homer  and  of 
Hesiod  as  in  those  of  Pericles,  has  been  and  still  is  the 
wonder  of  scholars,  appearing  to  have  had  no  infancy, 
to  have  sprung  into  existence  like  Minerva  full  armed 
from  the  brain  of  Jove  ;  which  a  learned,  but  perhaps 
in  this  particular,  enthusiastic  scholar  of  our  own  coun- 
try, Prof.  Taylor  Lewis,  regards  as  too  perfect  to  have 
been  the  work  of  man,  and  hazards  the  suggestion  that 
it  was  a  direct  gift  of  the  deity.  Greece,  the  world's 
wonder  and  the  world's  pride,  was  a  republic. 

Learning  and  the  arts  flourished  under  some  of  the 
Roman  Emperors,  it  is  true,  as  well  as  during  the  exis- 
tence of  the  republic.  But  Greece  was  at  that  time 
still  "  living  Greece,"  though  a  conquered  province. 
Athens,  though  plundered  of  her  richest  ornaments, 
could  still  boast  of  her  schools  at  which  Roman  youth 
were  educated.  Cicero  and  Horace  were  pupils  of  the 
Academy  or  Lyceum  at  Athens.  Caesar,  Sallust,  Lucre- 
tius the  author  of  the  Poem  De  Rerum  Naturae,  Titus 
Pomponius,  surnamed  Atticus,  from  his  critical  knowl- 
edge of  the  Greek  language,  and  indeed  almost  all  of 
the  well  educated  Roman  youth  of  this  era,  finished 
their  studies  in  Greece. 

In  following  down  the  stream  of  time,  we  find  but  lit- 
tle to  illustrate  our  position,  until  we  reach  the  period 
of  the  revival  of  learning  in  Europe,  which  was  in  real- 


37 

ity  but  a  restoration  of  Grecian  literature,  which  had 
found  a  refuge  from  vandalism  in  Constantinople  and 
the  Caliphats  of  Bagdad  and  Cordova.  The  greatest 
original  production  of  this  period,  is  doubtless  the  Divi- 
na  Comedia  of  Dante,  and  whatever  may  have  been 
the  state  of  civil  liberty  during  the  feuds  of  the  Guelphs 
and  the  Ghibellines,  this  noble  work  bears  evidence  of 
the  fact  that  its  author  was  on  all  occasions  the  zealous 
and  fearless  advocate  of  civil  and  religious  freedom. 

During  the  Elizabethan  epoch  of  English  literature, 
the  struggle  between  privilege  and  prerogative  had  com- 
menced, and  the  era  of  Milton,  Butler  and  Cowley  was 
republican.     Look  where  we  may,  liberty  and  literature 
exhibit  an  intimate  alliance,  and  we  shall  evince  but  lit- 
tle faith  in  the  lesson  taught  us  by  past  experience,  if 
we  allow  ourselves  to  entertain  any  but  the  most  cheer- 
ing anticipations  of  our  own   probable  future  literary 
eminence.     If  true  to  our  best  interests,  a  glorious  des- 
tiny in  this  respect  is  assuredly  in  store  for  us,  and  to  se- 
cure such  a  result  should  be  among  the  leading  aims  of 
enlightened  patriotism.     How  such  a  desirable  consum- 
mation is  to  be  most  certainly  and  speedily  attained,  is 
a  question  well  worthy  of  our  most  serious  consideration. 
It  would,  surely,  be  entirely  a  work  of  supererogation 
to  undertake  to  prove  before  such  an  audience  as  is  here 
present,  that  the  only  rational  mode  of  accomplishing 
this  object  is  by  the  promotion  and  diffusion  of  knowl- 
edge.    Indeed  the  advancement  of  knowledge,  second 
only  to  the  attainment  of  that  higher  wisdom  which 
cometh  from  above,  is  the  noblest  undertaking  in  which 


38 

the  mind  of  man  can  engage.  For  not  until  man  casts 
aside  the  trammels  of  ignorance — not  until  his  moral 
and  intellectual  nature  has  been  improved  by  culture, 
does  he  exhibit  the  dignity  of  which  humanity  is  capa- 
ble. Heap  upon  him  the  wealth  of  "  all  the  Indies," 
clothe  him  in  purple  and  fine  linen,  and  lodge  him  in 
sumptuous  palaces,  without  intellectual  and  moral  cul- 
ture, he  is  still  but  the  creature  of  blind  impulse  and 
passion,  and  presents  a  spectacle  in  the  sight  of  true 
wisdom  more  melancholy  and  more  revolting  and  in- 
harmonious than  that  afforded  by  the  rude  denizens  of 
our  western  forests.  The  true  and  only  certain  mode 
of  attaining  national  renown,  and  indeed  material  pow- 
er and  greatness,  is  by  the  cultivation  and  diffusion  of 
knowledge.  Not  that  superficial  knowledge  with  which 
I  fear  our  utilitarian  age  is  too  apt  to  be  satisfied ;  but 
knowledge,  broad,  comprehensive  and  profound  ;  and 
hence  our  system  of  education  should  embrace  the  whole 
ample  field  of  learning.  At  present  we  are  forced  to 
make  the  humiliating  confession,  that  education  among 
us  is,  for  the  most  part,  merely  professional,  and  even  in 
that,  the  low  standard  of  utility  has  been  erected  as  the 
proper  measure  of  its  value. 

We  by  no  means  wish  to  undervalue  professional 
knowledge.  Indeed  we  are  advocates  of  high  profes- 
sional attainments;  but  we  object  to  an  exclusive  devo- 
tion to  such  pursuits,  as  having  a  tendency  to  narrow 
and  contract  the  mind.  Nor  does  it  generally  lead  to 
the  attainment  of  the  highest  professional  reputation. 
Marshall  and  Story  were  not  mere  lawyers,  but  men  of 


39 

enlarged  knowledge  and  profound  scholarship.  Mere 
professional  attainments  would  probably  never  have 
elevated  Jeffrey  or  Brougham  to  the  peerage ;  Arm- 
strong and  Darwin  are  hardly  known  except  as  poets, 
and  the  literary  fame  of  Burke  and  Clarendon  complete- 
ly eclipses  their  professional  reputation.  A  low  degree 
of  knowledge,  and  an  imperfect  discipline  of  the  mind,. 
is  the  necessary  result,  where  the  standard  of  present 
utility  is  set  up,  as  the  measure  of  its  value. 

It  is  indeed  an  ignoble  principle  of  action — a  mode  of 
thinking  which  casts  a  deadly  blight  upon  morals,  liter- 
ature and  art,  and  extinguishes  all  high  aspirations  after 
the  beautiful  and  ideal,  either  in  life  or  literature.  We 
are  told  by  the  poet,  and  with  truth,  that 

"  Man  loves  knowledge,  and  the  light  of  truth 
More  welcome  strikes  his  understanding's  eye,. 
Than  all  the  blandishments  of  sound,  his  ear, 
Than  all  of  taste,  his  tongue.'* 

But  in  this  age  of  great  physical  progress,  it  is  becom- 
ing too  common  to  value  it  only  in  the  ratio  of  its  pro- 
ductiveness. Now,  all  knowledge  is  useful,  either  im- 
mediately or  remotely ;  but  we  degrade  it,  if  we  do  not 
love  it,  for  its  own  sake — for  its  ennobling  and  expanding 
influence  on  the  mind. 

It  is  impossible  to  estimate  the  full  value  of  any  new 
truth  at  the  time  of  its  discovery.  Who  eould  have 
predicted,  when  Galvani  discovered  that  form  of  elec- 
tricity which  is  generated  by  the  contact  of  two  dissim- 
ilar metals,  that  it  would  have  led  to  the  brilliant  dis- 
covery of  the  metallic   bases  of  the  alkalies,  by  Sir 


40 

Humphrey  Davy,  or  its  application  to  the  telegraph,  or 
to  the  more  exact  determination  of  longitude  ;  or  when 
Huygens  discovered  the  polarization  of  light,  that  the 
distinguished  French  astronomer,  Arrago,  would  have 
been  enabled  by  means  of  it,  to  determine  that  the  en- 
tire body  of  the  sun  is  not  a  solid  incandescent  mass ; 
but  that  its  central  nucleus  is  surrounded  by  a  luminous 
atmosphere. 

The  necessity  of  enlarging  the  basis  of  education  in 
our  country  is  beginning  to  force  itself  on  the  public 
attention.  The  establishment  of  a  National  University 
is  now  occupying  the  minds  of  the  learned  and  patriotic 
among  us ;  and  it  is  gratifying  to  know,  that  the  govern- 
ors of  this  institution,  have  decided  to  enlarge  the  sphere 
of  its  usefulness,  by  establishing  professorships  for  teach- 
ing the  application  of  science  to  agriculture  and  the  arts. 

We  hope,  therefore,  that  the  time  is  not  remote,  when 
we  shall  no  longer  be  compelled  to  admit  the  correctness 
of  the  remark  made  by  an  able  writer  of  our  country, 
"  that  there  is  a  strong  tendency  among  us  to  undervalue 
the  importance  of  liberal  studies,  philosophical  investi- 
gations, profound  scholarship  and  scientific  attainments." 

The  strongest  prejudices  and  the  hottest  warfare  of 
the  Utilitarians  has  been  directed  against  metaphysical 
and  philosophical  studies.  Many  do  not  hesitate  to  pro- 
nounce them  positively  useless  and  productive  of  no 
benefit.  Very  different,  however,  was  the  estimate 
placed  on  their  value  by  such  men  as  Plato,  Cicero, 
Bacon,  Leibnetz  and  Milton.  Cicero  calls  philosophy 
the  guide  of  life,  the  protector  of  virtue  and  the  expeller 


41 

of  vice ;  Bacon  places  it  only  subordinate  to  religion  as 
of  all  things  most  worthy  of  human  nature,  and  Milton. 
in  contemplating  its  grand  results  and  its  happy  influ- 
ence on  the  mind,  in  the  fullness  of  his  admiration,  ex- 
claims : 

"  How  charming  is  divine  Philosophy, 
Not  harsh  and  crabbed,  as  dull  fools  suppose, 
But  a  perpetual  feast  of  nectar'd  sweets, 
Where  no  crude  surfeit  reigns." 

High  authority  is  not  wanting,  then,  in  favor  of  such 
studies,  for  these  are  names  which  stand  prominently 
forth  in  the  history  of  our  race,  as  exercising  an  influ- 
ence on  many  generations — an  influence  which  is  still 
felt,  and  which  is  likely  to  be  coeval  with  the  cultivation 
of  letters. 

As  the  intellectual  is  superior  to  the  physical,  as  mind 
exercises  the  mastery  over  matter,  surely  that  depart- 
ment of  inquiry,  which  aims  at  acquiring  a  knowledge 
of  the  laws  which  regulate  the  intellectual  faculties, 
must  be  a  high  and  ennobling  pursuit.  It  brings  man 
to  the  study  of  himself,  a  most  important  subject  of 
study;  for  of  his  intellectual,  in  a  more  especial  manner 
than  of  his  physical  nature,  it  may  be  said,  that  he  is 
4i  most  fearfully  and  wonderfully  made." 

The  highest  possible  subject  of  study  is  that  subluna- 
ry chef  d'  ceuvre  of  its  maker,  the  mind  of  man ;  and 
such  study,  far  from  being  without  practical  results,  is 
daily  exercising  its  beneficial  effects,  even  upon  those 
who  undervalue  its  usefulness  and  ridicule  its  pursuit* 
for  it  constitutes  the  basis  of  every  well  devised  syst*- ; 


42 

of  education.  A  proper  training  of  the  intellectual  and 
moral  faculties,  pre-supposes  a  knowledge  of  those  facul- 
ties and  of  the  laws  which  regulate  their  operations.  In 
the  words  of  a  fine  writer,  "  we  should  not  carry  our 
minds  as  we  do  our  watches,  content  to  be  ignorant  of 
the  constitution  and  action  within,  and  only  attentive  to 
the  external  circle  of  things  to  which  the  passions,  like 
indexes,  are  pointing."' 

Doubtless  much  of  the  prejudice  which  exists  against 
Huch  studies,  has  arisen  from  the  wild  vagaries  and 
empty  speculations  of  the  mediaeval  schoolmen,  and  the 
transcendental  abstractions  of  some  of  the  more  modern 
writers  on  such  subjects,  especially  among  the  Germans, 
who,  abandoning  the  track  of  legitimate  investigation 
and  endeavoring  to  dive  into  the  nature  of  efficient 
causes,  and  the  mysterious  laws  of  the  universe,  have 
bewildered  themselves  in  the  inextricable  mazes  of  con- 
jecture. But  no  such  objection  can  stand  for  a  moment 
against  the  noble  work  of  Mr.  Locke,  on  the  Human 
Understanding,  or  those  remarkable  specimens  of  crys- 
tal logic  and  condensed  rhetoric,  which  have  emanated 
from  the  pen  of  Sir  Wm.  Hamilton.  These  and  such  as 
these  are  the  minds  which,  occupying  the  high  moun- 
tain ranges  of  thought,  give  impulse  and  direction  to  the 
currents  of  literature  which  meander  in  the  valleys  be- 
low. Thus  the  writings  of  Coleridge  are  redolent  of  the 
philosophy  of  Kant  and  of  Schelling,  and  much  of  the 
poetry  of  Pope  is  but  the  exponent  of  the  philosophy  of 
Lord  Bolingbroke. 


id 

As  an  important  means  of  elevating  the  standard  of 
scholarship,  as  an  intellectual  gymnasium  for  the  dis- 
cipline of  the  mind,  such  studies  surely  deserve  the  en- 
couragement and  approbation  of  those  who  desire  and 
aim  at  a  high  grade  of  intellectual  attainment  for  our 
country.  Diffuse  among' our  population  a  large  number 
of  men  of  extensive-  attainments  and  profound  learning, 
and  we  may  look  with  confidence  for  the  appearance  of 
works  which  will,  in  the  course  of  time,  constitute  a 
body  of  American  literature,  which  will  confer  honor 
on  our  country. 

But  in  striving  after  the  attainment  of  a  high  order 
of  scholarship  and  the  acquisition  of  human  learning,  let 
us  not  forget  that  man  has  a  moral,  as  well  as  an  intel- 
lectual nature — that  human  learning,  scientific  knowl- 
edge, as  we  call  it,  is  but  the  outward  garment,  the  ar- 
tifieal  investiture  of  truth — that  our  emotional  feelings 
and  affections  have  a  higher  dignity,  a  holier  sanctity, 
than  our  intellectual  powers.  Let  us  not  neglect  the 
teaching-  of  that  prima,  pliUosopliia,  that  supreme  wis- 
dom, which  not  only  sheds  its  bright  light  on  the  path- 
way of  life,  but  spans  with  its  iridescent  radiance  the 
dark  clouds  which  overhang  the  tomb— penetrates  the 
otherwise  impenetrable  obscure,  and  intermingles  its 
cheering  beams  with  the  glorious  effulgence  of  eternal 
day — that  wisdom  which 

makes  as  brave. 
In  the  great  faith  of  life  beyond  the  grav.\ 


